WINNIPEG – It wasn’t the prettiest win of Jake Shields’ career, but the former Strikeforce champ stuck to a grinding gameplan to score an upset split-decision victory over the much-hyped Tyron Woodley.

The welterweight bout was part of today’s UFC 161 event at MTS Centre in Winnipeg. It aired on FX after additional prelims on Facebook and ahead of a pay-per-view main card.

Shields started by offering up low kicks from both sides. Woodley looked to counter with heavy punches before the pair moved into the clinch. The position proved a stalemate, and referee Yves Lavigne broke them apart, where Shields resumed his kicking attack with Woodley looking to answer over the top.

Despite his strong wrestling background, Woodley declined to look for a takedown again in the second. Instead, he was content to stand and trade while Shields worked to close the distance. The crowd didn’t appreciate the extended clinchwork, but the pair continued to jockey for position against the cage.

Woodley finally pulled away with a little more than 90 seconds left, but Shields quickly pushed back in. Unfortunately for him, he was unable to drag the action to the floor despite 11 takedown attempts in the first two frames.

Shields pushed quickly in again to open the third, negating Woodley’s power punches. However, Lavigne was much faster with his restart in the final round. Woodley landed a beautiful spinning backfist in the closing stages of the fight, but Shields quickly gathered himself and moved in for another clinch. Lavigne pulled them apart again with one minute remaining. Woodley tried again to land a power shot, but the fight ended, fittingly, in the clinch.

While the tightly contested bout was hard to score, judges decided Shields’ forward movement and work in the clinch were enough, awarding him a split-decision win with scores of 27-30, 29-28 and 29-28

“It was a lot closer than I would have liked, but I won,” Shields said after the fight. “I was more aggressive, even though our two styles sort of canceled each other out.

Shields (28-6-1 MMA, 3-2 UFC) now boasts an official two-fight UFC win streak and admits he now has his eye set on two potential opponents.

“I think this puts me back on the main cards, and I want a top-5 guy,” Shields said. “If I could get a Rory MacDonald or someone like that, that’s who I am aiming at. If I could pick, I would get Jake Ellenberger again. I did a lot of things wrong in that fight he beat me, I had just lost my dad, and I want to get that win back.”

Meanwhile, Woodley (11-2 MMA, 1-1 UFC), who falls to 1-2 in his past three overall fights, took offense to the call.

“I am very confused right now,” Woodley admitted. “I got a 30-27 on one card. What were the other two judges looking at?

“He didn’t get anything going in that fight; I was the one pressing it. I don’t know what to say but, ‘WTF?'”

As the UFC 189 tour made its last stop in Dublin, featherweight champ Jose Aldo was met with a torrent of abuse from the Irish fans. It might have been unpleasant, but it might also have been just what he needed.